Imperial B51 "Workhorse" mini-review

[Horseflesh]

I tried this stuff on a Belgian Golden Strong and was pleased with the results. Compared to my past Belgian runs with WLP500 and WLP530, B51 finished more easily and had a more obvious Belgian flavor. Somewhere I read an opinion that B51 was only good for dark Belgians, but nothing in this glass I'm drinking makes me think that.

Of course, maybe I wasn't using 500/530 correctly... but I found it to be easier to get a pleasing result with B51 and it was certainly faster. My 500/530 batches have always been meh.

My temperature protocol was 65F for 2 days, then +1F per day until 72F... advice that came from some post around here or a similar forum. I don't have the exact timeline but it bottomed out at 82% AA in about 2 weeks. Flocculation was pretty good.

I will definitely use this again.

YMMV.

 

[day_trippr]

Imo, if you enjoy B51, give B64 a try.
I split a 10g saison batch between the two strains and B64 had more pronounced "goodness"...

Cheers!

 

[Horseflesh]

Cool, I will give it a shot.

 

[CircaChris]

Just used B-51 in an imperial stout a few days ago. In NY and yes it is the summer so it's fermenting hot like 80-85F. Not mad about getting any Belgian banana ester flavors off of the yeast. Just wondering why it seems to have finished so quick, like three days. I know that the yeast will keep working just not as fast (and perhaps not visually since the beer is pitch black). Also planning on a secondary with adjuncts and adding B-64 which I had also purchased for this brew (coincidentally). Since the 5g batch has 20lb of grain and the sugar will continue to be eaten in the secondary I will pitch the B-64 then. How long should I wait to secondary (two weeks)?